I bore easily of the "badwrongfun" model of genres and edition wars. I know, I know, houseruling that one rule you love completely destroys your hope in humanity.
Except when it comes to Sanity in Call of Cthulhu. There are two major camps when dealing with it in CoC: the "traditionalists" who don't believe a session is successful unless everyone is either in a sanitarium or shoggoth food. There are also the "new school" people who find Sanity checks an unnecessary nuisance, since they interupt the real portions of the story, be it chacter interaction, back story, or killing everything Mythos related they can to rack up a Monty Haul styled horror game.
It gets my goat, because I believe in a healthy dose of SAN loss, but not the stereotypical response.
Take this, for example.
Except when it comes to Sanity in Call of Cthulhu. There are two major camps when dealing with it in CoC: the "traditionalists" who don't believe a session is successful unless everyone is either in a sanitarium or shoggoth food. There are also the "new school" people who find Sanity checks an unnecessary nuisance, since they interupt the real portions of the story, be it chacter interaction, back story, or killing everything Mythos related they can to rack up a Monty Haul styled horror game.
It gets my goat, because I believe in a healthy dose of SAN loss, but not the stereotypical response.
Take this, for example.
I know, classic Cthulhu scene. Let's take a look at our three protagonists.
The dude by the car? 50/50 he's either failed a SAN check and petrified, or he just knows he's screwed. There's no chance at grabbing the gun/tome/elder sign from the car.
The bald dude who "looks silly"? That's classic catatonia, any SAN adventurer doesn't glare at the Mythos menacingly unless they want to become the Cthonian's Chowder on a snowy afternoon.
The "crazy" guy? He's the guaranteed to be the sanest one of the bunch. In a game of "live to fight another day/scene" most good Keepers allow an investigator a sliver of a chance at survival if all they do is say the equivilant of "crap" and hightail it out of there, usually relying on the "I don't have to be the fastest, just not the slowest," to possibly escape.
It's all a matter of perspective, people.
But if my group ever gets back together (my bad), if they encounter that in the streets of New York , I'm pretty sure we're rolling characters for Spawn of Azathoth in a few minutes. Eight foot Asians are terrifying enough for them.
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